...Affordable Care Act Obamacare The Affordable Care Act also known as Obama Care is the most significant health care legislation enacted since the beginning of Medicare and Medicaid forty five years ago. The Affordable Care is one that is very confusing and least understood. I think most Americans understand that all Americans will need to get health insurance in some way, but Americans don’t really know much else about this law. This act will not benefit everyone, however those who were previously uninsured or underinsured will benefit the most from the act. Also, those previously denied health coverage because of a pre-existing health condition may now be insured. While the Affordable Care Act is a federal law, the details of how it’s implemented are much left up to the local state government. Many Americans will not benefit from the Affordable Care Act because they fall under a coverage gap meaning that they live in states that do not have expanded Medicaid coverage, they make too much money to qualify for federally sponsored insurance, or they not old enough to qualify for Medicare yet. Nationwide about three million uninsured adult Americans fall into the coverage gap, because local state government decisions not to expand Medicaid, meaning their income is above current Medicaid eligibility but below the lower limit for Marketplace premium tax credits. These individuals would have been newly eligible for Medicaid had the local state government chosen to expand the Medicaid...
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...Affordable Care Act Student’s Name University Affiliation Affordable Care Act Analyze the impact of the ACA on changes to health care insurance and coverage. The Affordable care act better known as the Obama Care Act is a health care law that was signed into law by President Obama on 2010. Since the implementation of this law, there have been major changes in the platform of health insurance (Faguet 2013). The major aim of this act was to make changes to health and make it affordable to the people. Since the implementation of the act, very many Americans have had access to healthcare insurance coverage. With the implementation of the affordable care act, various factors in insurance have changed. The first change in insurance that has been experienced is the individuals who receive cover. The act has made it possible for every individual even the low-income individuals to access insurance. The second change is what is covered by the insurance. Under the ACA, coverage is only accorded to essential health benefits contrary to earlier on where almost everything was covered but for a few people. Finally, there have been new regulations for insurance. The new regulations include limitation of premium. Investigate the major implications of the legislation on the manner in which institutions now provide health care in the U.S. There have been major fuses on the lowered quality of healthcare that came with the act. First service provision has been affected since with very...
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...In a 5-4 decision, the country’s highest court ruled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act constitutional, and does not exceed Congress’ scope of powers. In a 65-page ruling, the court ruled the individual mandate that requires most Americans to have health insurance or face a fine as constitutional, qualifying the provision as a tax. (Rapoza) While the commission covered by the Affordable Care Act is an imperfect system that does not mean it is not a good one. All of the minor details of the tax penalties the government will implement against those who do not have health insurance are not easy to decipher. The hospitals and health care providers feel very positive about this law because they are guaranteed patients who guarantees payment from the federal government, which should also mean premiums will go down as a result. I have no idea how people can claim that health insurers will suffer. In Massachusetts, they live under the predecessor of ObamaCare — the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Act, signed into law by former governor Mitt Romney in 2006. (Rapoza) Under RomneyCare, 98 percent of Massachusetts’ residents have affordable health insurance. (Rapoza) Meanwhile, Massachusetts has not gone broke. Its unemployment level is currently 6 percent, better than the national average of 8.3 percent. (Rapoza) Companies are not going belly up because of RomneyCare. Private insurers operate in the state alongside the non-profit health insurers like Harvard Pilgrim and Blue...
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...The Affordable Care Act One of the most important health care moves in legislation after Medicare is the Affordable Care Act. The reason being is that it provides health coverage to anyone regardless of circumstance. The unofficial but widely recognized name for this act is Obama care. Obama care was officially signed into law on March 23, 2010. The aim of the Act is a health care law aimed at improving the health care system of the United States by widening health coverage to more Americans, as well as protecting existing health insurance policy holders. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, it represents the most significant government expansion and regulatory overhaul of the U.S. By 2014, the Affordable Care Act will give millions of Americans access to reliable, high quality medical care, while advancing programs to hold costs in check. Benefits of the law include, insurance subsidies for consumers, transparent exchanges to shop for insurance, new rules protecting consumers from insurance abuses, increased Medicare payments for physicians; and more. The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act ensures hard-working, middle class families will get the security they deserve and it also protects every American from the worst insurance company abuses. The way this law was designed was to specifically give states the resources and agility they need to adapt their approach to their distinctive needs. The benefits and protections that...
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...Affordable Care Act Myer Mikan Alden University Abstract The Affordable Care Act (ACA) in North Carolina: Discussion points; 1) The impact of this act on the population. 2) The economics of providing care to patients from the organization point of view.3) The effect of cost of treatment, quality of treatment and access to treatment. 4) Examining the ethical implications of this act for both the organization and the patients. Affordable Care Act Impact As we all know before the Affordable Care Act came into existence in 2010, the federal and state programs that provided health insurance, and social welfare funding are the Medicaid and Medicare. However, a new legislature was enacted into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 to extend health insurances across all demographic ladder as well as all income levels thereby making health insurance flexible and affordable. “Over 45 million Americans who are uninsured speak volumes about the problems with our present Healthcare system” (Rashford, 2007). This new law that is widely referred to as the Obamacare aimed at providing Americans with affordable quality health insurance and to reduce the high cost of healthcare spending in the United States. This new insurance as argued by the government offers a lot of new benefits, rights and protection rules for insurance companies, tax breaks ...
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...Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA) The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also know as Affordable Care Act, is a law that was brought into effect to improve the way of the Health care system as well as Medicare and Medicaid. Which was signed in March 2010 by President Barack Obama. This law allow the uninsured and middle class workers to be able to afford health coverage. It also allows existing insurance holders to be able to keep their plans. This act consist of ten amendments, listed below: Title I: Quality Affordable Health Care for all Americans. Helps all Americans get an affordable health plans with lower premium cost. This plan helps middles class, working class, and small businesses be able to control their insurance coverage. Also if they already have a plan that they have been using their coverage is procted from change. Title II: The Role to Public Programs: This helps our elderly people and people that need long-term care. The more people that get insurance we are actually saving money due to the reduction in payments and medication cost. It also helps educate woman and teens about pregnancy. Such as, family planning, teen pregnancy, postpartum depression, and CHIP (Childrens insurance plan). This reform also assist in improving our Medicaid system, as well as helping and assisting with community based services and people with disabilities. Title III: Improving the Quality& Efficiency of Health Care. Improvements...
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...Running head: THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT The Affordable Care Act, Is it Really Working? Saint Leo University THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 2 Abstract On the 23rd of March 2010, President Barack Obama signed a monumental bill into law. That bill was the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare by those who opposed the law. The purpose of this law is to make health insurance affordable for those who have little or no health insurance coverage. In 2012 nearly 15% of the U.S. population had no health insurance during most of the calendar year (www.aier.org). So if the purpose of this law is to better ourselves by providing health insurance why are there so many people opposing it? You would think in the land of milk and honey you would want people to be healthier and long living. Or is the reason because the big health insurance companies feel they are having food taking out of their mouths and the mouths of their supporters. THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 3 The Affordable Care Act was signed into law to reform the health care industry on the March 23rd 2010 by President Obama. The Affordable Care Act was a major topic during the 2008 Presidential primaries. The goal for the Affordable Care Act was to give more American access to affordable health insurance which in turn...
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...Affordable Care Act: Impact on Providers Quality vs. Quantity Abstract The Affordable Care Act’s proposal was to make sure that health insurance coverage is affordable for individuals, families, and businesses and decrease the amount of uninsured individuals. . Much of the impact of this act will begin when the major coverage provisions take effect in 2014. Providers will experience an increased burden in many aspects of their medical profession including new legal practicing liabilities, less autonomy, administrative encumbrances, shortages of primary care physicians, and political infringement (Horton, Hollier 2012). The provider is to maintain high quality of care while the ACA’s agenda is cost and quantity over quality. The Affordable Care Act is the largest piece of legislative reform in American history relating to health care. The impact to our economy on many levels of scale and our constitutional rights are all being questioned and debated without a definitive answer to long term reality of its implications. Reform is necessitous to the continuance of providing care, controlling fraudulent activities and waste, as well as, exploring new innovative ways to maintain a high level of quality services within the legalities of our legislative branch. The balance of these aspects have been challenging and perplexing in materializing the reforms into fruition. The concentration during reform has been on quantity of the insured population...
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...The U.S health care system has gone through three changes within the last fifty years. In 1964 the federal government implemented Medicare and Medicaid followed by the Balance Budget Act in 1997. The third change made by the federal government was the Affordable Care Act. This bill was passed by congress on March 23, 2010 which required all Americans to obtain health insurance by law. The Affordable Care Act was implemented to the United States on January 1, 2014. According to an article the primary purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to “decrease the number of uninsured, expand access to affordable health care, dissolve the concept of charging higher insurance rates for people with preexisting conditions, and decrease overall costs of health care by focusing on quality rather than quantity” (Savel, 2014). In other words the Affordable Care Act’s purpose is to improve the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system. Although the Affordable Care Act is allowing more individuals to gain access to the health care system nevertheless, the health care system is not relocating the resources to provide the access to the thousands of new consumers. Due to the Affordable Care Act more Americans are now eligible for health insurance. For example individuals with pre-existing conditions before were either denied by health insurance or insurance was rather too expensive for them to purchase. According to Kavita K. Patel (2014) “Before the ACA, those with pre-existing medical conditions...
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...Regulatory Health Issue: Affordable Care Act Regulations There are many, critical regulatory issues in healthcare that need to be addressed. “While the Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Congress is holding hearings on the federal regulatory process. The two topics are more closely related than you might think” (Ellig). The one that jumps out to me and needs addressed more in-depth is the regulation of the payments for healthcare. As well as, the actual regulatory process and how certain sections of the healthcare system are picked, need to be regulated. Not only is the regulation of this part of the healthcare system have many issues but in general choosing what to regulate and the actual process of research needs looked into. Regulating parts of the healthcare system is done to ensure that healthcare facilities, and businesses, laws, and acts are properly dealt out. There needs to be rules for laws, so that everyone is treated fairly and equally. The article explains that there was not enough research done to require new or improved regulatory requirements. The Affordable care act was put in place by President Barrack Obama to ensure that all Americans have the ability to purchase insurance for themselves and their families. It was put into play to see that it was affordable and did not discriminate against age, race, sex, and illness. Some of the regulations made were ensuring that insurance companies could not deny coverage to someone...
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...The Affordable Health Care Act was created to make health insurance more accessible to Americans. “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enacted by the US Congress and signed by the US President in 2010, marks the largest change in US health policy since the adoption of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965,” (Shaw, Asomugha, Conway, & Rein, 2014, p. 75). In addition, this law also implements methods to improve healthcare and control the cost of care. The law “aims to increase the quality of care, restrain the growth of costs, and advance population health,” (Shaw et al., 2014). Health care organizations are feeling the pressures imposed by these changes in policy and are forced to adapt their methods to continue to provide quality care in an economically sustainable way. This legislation aims to change reimbursement methods for healthcare services from a fee-for service model to a pay-for-performance model. In addition, the law takes measures to improve continuity of care and prevent patients from overusing certain services. According to McClellan (2011): Provider payment reforms in the Affordable Care Act of 2010 included pilot and nonpilot programs to pay more for coordination of care by primary care providers, for reducing preventable hospital readmissions, for reducing the overall costs and improving quality of common procedures and diagnoses, and for even more comprehensive methods for moving away from Medicare’s fee-for-service payment system while directly accounting...
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...The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010. Many of the provisions of the law directly affect health care providers. Review the following online resources: 1. Key Features of the Affordable Care Act: http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/index.html 2. Health Care Transformation: the Affordable Care Act and More: http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/Policy-Advocacy/HealthSystemReform/AffordableCareAct.pdf What are the most important elements of the Affordable Care Act in relation to community and public health? What is the role of the nurse in implementing this law? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided many positive changes in the course of health care reform. Some of the most important elements include the ability to obtain preventative services such as colonoscopies or mammograms without copays, deductibles, or secondary insurance. Insurance companies can no longer rescind services when a health care claim is made or deny coverage to children under the age of 19 with a pre-existing condition. Patients can now appeal insurance company decisions and federal grants were established to help states set up independent offices to help consumers navigate the private health insurance system. These programs also help consumers file complaints and appeals, enroll in health coverage, and get educated about their rights and responsibilities in group health plans or individual health insurance policies (U.S. Department...
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...Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Diana Gonzalez Perez Florida International University Introduction The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama. The PPACA was enacted to address the lack of quality health care delivery to the 49 million uninsured Americans, a number which has grown with the slow economic growth our country is experiencing (Rattue, 2011). As part of this legislation there are ten provisions, all which are important to comprehensive healthcare reform. Each provision addresses specific functions of the current healthcare delivery system including insurance, reimbursement, medications, and taxes. In this paper, specific provisions of the PPACA will be discussed as well as the legal implications of the legislation. Provisions The PPACA has ten provisions which supply legal guidance for the health care reforms expected to take place from 2010-2014. These provisions will continue to affect the Nation as healthcare continues to evolve. Title I. The quality, affordable health care for all Americans provision includes subtitles A-F. Title I sets the basic guidelines required to implement the PPACA legislation. Subtitle A. Subtitle A sets specific guidelines to be followed by health plans including the prohibition of establishing lifetime limits or annual limits for any participant or beneficiary after January 1, 2014, but permits a restricted annual limit for plans...
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...The Affordable Care Act - Applying Historical Perspectives to a Current Social Issue The University of Washington, School of Social Work The Affordable Care Act - Applying Historical Perspectives to a Current Social Issue Universal health care for Americans has long been a highly contested hot button issue in the United States. It is no secret that Americans pay much more for medical services than other comparable countries, however these higher price tags do not necessarily translate to better care (Keller, 2013). For example, the average price of the allergy nose spray Nasonex is $108 in the United States, compared to $21 in Spain. In many developed countries, a basic colonoscopy costs well under $1,000, but in the United States a bill for this procedure would likely be closer to the $7,000 to $9,000 range (Rosenthal, 2013). In the midst of the debate, and while Republicans and Democrats alike may claim that they want the best health care available for all American people, in the media more often than not this argument comes down to dollars and cents. However, it is of course too simplistic to say that only the power of money and no other forces are at play here. In this paper I will present the case of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more commonly referred to as Obamacare, as it relates to a number of different political and economic ideologies presented in readings and in lecture. The goal of the ACA is to increase the quality and affordability of medical care and health...
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...2010 that bill called the Affordable Care Act was signed into effect and changed the healthcare of this country for the worse. The bill has many problems which include: giving doctors no reason to specialize, many insurance companies’ issues with this change, and the funding for hospitals and doctors for those who do not pay. While the main idea behind the Affordable Care Act is to provide the poor with healthcare plans, I believe it causes and leaves many more problems for the United States. The Affordable Care Act bill would cover millions more Americans who do not have health insurance and it will cover up to almost ninety-five percent of all the people in the country. The new bill would cost around thousand billion dollars over ten years but the cost of the changes made will be balanced by adding new taxes, fees, and other solutions which include making the rich pay more for the new Medicare taxes, putting taxes on many new regular activities such as indoor tanning cutting, cut down the old system of the Medicare program, and putting more fees on the pharmaceutical organizations. This law would expand the availability of Medicaid, support for medical research, and supporting insurance quality. Also this bill would ban any discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, and motivate business’s that would provide for the health care benefits by giving them more incentives. According to the global professional point of view the Affordable Care Act is going to create more...
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